Processing of Sintered Stainless Steel Parts

Abstract

Stainless steel components are made from fully prealloyed powders that require high pressures to obtain high densities. When parts are double pressed and sintered, nitrogen pickup from the presintering atmosphere can affect the recompactibility. During the high temperature sintering step chromium oxide should be reduced if good ductilities are to be achieved. Automotive applications will normally require a salt spray test survival time of ≥10 days. Sintered versions of standard grades fail under these conditions. Experiments were performed to determine the way in which production parameters affect salt spray test performance. PM/0568